GMA's "war" vs. MERALCO

[Gumusut_Amige]

nakow... mukhang ito na naman ang gagatasan ng gobyerno "wala pa sigurong nalikom na pondo coming 2010 election". meron bang GOCC ngayon na kumikita???

[shadow]

I'll just choose the lesser evil which is the Lopezes...kahit anong gawin ng Malacanang na papogi eh wala na sirang-sira na sila...

before they take over any companies, sagutin muna nila mga yun issues about joc-joc bolante, ZTE, Garci etc...

[CtrlAltDel]

When government runs Meralco:

Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board: Winston Garcia
Chief Operating Officer and President: Romulo Neri

New Meralco motto: There's plenty for everybody.

[Monseratto]

I agree w/ Winston that Meralco has to be broken up like MWSS. Sana mapunta yung sector namin sa mga Ayalas. They are the better managers than the Lopezes.

[chua_riwap]

May hearing kanina sa Senado ah. Andun yung taga ERC, Meralco, Transco, DoE, mga amuyongs........

May nangyari ba?

[chua_riwap]

Tahimik si VP Noli......................

[Lucius]

Tahimik si VP Noli......................

Summer ngayon. Ayaw nya maputulan ng kuryente and mawalan ng aircon

[ringostarr]

I agree w/ Winston that Meralco has to be broken up like MWSS. Sana mapunta yung sector namin sa mga Ayalas. They are the better managers than the Lopezes.

tapos bayad center either Globe G-Cash or BPI Banks
lahat ng poste ng meralco lalagyan ng antenna ng globe cellsite

tapos hindi sa-side kahit ano like what the Lopezes are doing

nun panahon ni Marcos, di siya ginalaw ni Marcos
nun panahon ni Cory, di siya ginalaw ni Cory, ni FVR, ni Erap

ngaun naglalaban si Binay saka si GMA, wala ka makita side nya

magaling lumaro ang mga Kastilang ito, kahit nakabili ka ng condo sa ayala, after 50 years balik pa din sa kanila yun pag-aari ng nabili mo

sorry but I'll trust yun kapwa Filipino ko than this. matagal ng pinalayas ang mga Kastila dito sa'tin but this family wants to own that very lucrative part of Manila FOREVER.

[ringostarr]

I'll just choose the lesser evil which is the Lopezes...kahit anong gawin ng Malacanang na papogi eh wala na sirang-sira na sila...

before they take over any companies, sagutin muna nila mga yun issues about joc-joc bolante, ZTE, Garci etc...

i believe so too. the Lopezes are true patriots. even during the time of our dad's dads, they have been holding the key utilities like power, media, water, mining. their best friends, the osmenas also did good in manila's counterpart, cebu. so these families may be doing a good service to the filipino people. kasi intact pa din tayo hanggang ngaun.

it just so happens na may rift ang clan nila with the present admin. this I believe is a new low for the acts of the first family against a family who has been of service to the filipino people.

nagtataka talaga ako sa mga tao, ngaun complain ng complain ng kuryente pero mga cellphone bills amounting to 3k to 6k and up, parang ok lang.

hello mas tubong lugaw kaya ang telecoms, ni hindi kailangan ng power plant and other infrastructures iyon, trucks, linemen pero halos singmahal ng kuryente maningil.

[CtrlAltDel]

Personal impressions ko lang catching snippets of hearing on the radio:

1. Pinakawalang kwenta ang mga sagot ni Winston Garcia sa mga nagtatanong.
2. Enrile hit Meralco's own electric consumption in their offices which is included in their systems loss. Magaling pa rin etong si Enrile.
3. Total salaries of top meralco execs are exposed including those of its directors including Garcia's.
4. Meralco's stocks has consistently dropped since Garcia's "exposes" causing GSIS's funds in Meralco loss value! Nice move Garcia!
5. Meralco and NPC are naturally defensive with NPC perhaps harder to crack in terms of giving up their sensitive documents to the envistigating commission.
6. Meralco hasnt had dividends since 2003 due to lack of rate increase in the distribution charge.

What I think the media misses:
1. Too much attention on systems loss! Even if meralco is not allowed to include their own electric consumption in the systems loss, they will simply insert it in their rate base calculation as allowed by ERC since it is directly related to their systems operations.
2. Sen santiago blames everyone except herself. The ERC is hit for failure to protect consumer interest. Last time I looked, ERC's madate is to balance the interests of the utility and consumer according to the law and implementing rules and regulations.
3. If meralco or npc or ERC is really involved in breaking the law, BRING THEM TO COURT! All this grandstanding by politicians and the arroyo administration only accomplish is bismerching the Lopezes and their business. Ano to, inggit lang?
4. Stockholders stand to lose.
5. The ERC, Meralco, NPC and their IPP's appear to be masters of Epira, IRR, and the law regulating electric industry. Meralco especially seem to know how to squeeze every bit of opportunity to maximize their earnings while still operating within the bounds of law (or so it appears.) So why blame them?

My opinion is if there is crime involved, let's stop mincing words and waste time and hasten to bring them to court. If they are not guilty of breaking the law, why are we blaming them for high electricity cost when we all know they are running a business and must make money?

[Monseratto]

The Ayalas do a better job in running a business than the Lopezes. The Lopezes sucked bigtime with Maynilad that they had to abandon it. Maynilad in now owned by DM Consujni. While the Ayalas made a big profit from running Manila Water.

[shadow]

Winston Garcia and the Gov't are asking for "transparency".....hinde ba sila nangingilabot sa sinasabi nila....???

people are also asking for "transparency" sa GSIS, gov't....

politika lang ang ginagawa ng Gov't, hinde nila kayang galawin ang ABS-CBS, kasi media kaya yun sister Co, ang tinitira nila....

any company that will be handled by the Gov't eh siguradong malulugi....

[shadow]

:thumbup: I agree with this article..

Meralco customers are better off with the devil they know
AS I WRECK THIS CHAIR By William M. Esposo
Tuesday, May 13, 2008 Power consumers are trapped between the greed of two parties fighting over Meralco. The Arroyo regime is obviously bent on wresting management control of the country’s biggest electric utility company from the Lopezes.
Of course, the Lopezes’ ownership of practically every major public utility is an issue in itself. When the family ventured into water distribution, someone commented that water and electricity were a deadly combination. It did not take long before the Lopezes found themselves ‘electrocuted’ from their unsuccessful venture in running their water distribution company, Maynilad.
But then again, we have no law prohibiting anyone who is qualified to venture into lucrative businesses as long as this does not violate anti-trust laws and fair trade practices. The Lopezes did take risks as much as they took losses.
The battle royale will find resolution at the end of the month during the annual Meralco Stockholders Meeting where independent shareholders who account for 33.6% of Meralco common shares will vote their decision. Government and its allied institutions hold 33.0% while the Lopez family controls the balance of 33.4%.
I used to own shares of Meralco during the 1990s. If I still owned those shares today, I would be voting to retain the Lopezes as managers of the company. It will not even be a hard decision to make.
Government’s miserably disastrous track record for management speaks for itself. IBC-13 was a top rating TV network until government ran it. Government assisted previously ailing companies PASAR, the National Steel Corporation and the Napocor from sickness to terminal stage. In fact Napocor’s inefficiency is largely responsible for the high cost of Meralco electricity.
We may have our beef with Meralco, but a government takeover will most certainly take us all back to the dark ages, pun intended.
Meralco’s worst performance was between 1972 and 1986, when the Marcos regime took over the utility firm. Do we want to experience those brownouts again? I shudder to even imagine what it will be like to have power outages in this age of computers, technology gismos, MRT and LRT, malls and worse, when global warming has made air-conditioning a survival tool.
I would have no problem considering a change of management if the alternative will be having a truly qualified and professional management team. It makes sense to inject new blood to a company that has been unable to meet consumers demand for a better, cheaper service. A new management team can inject new approaches that could work.
When viewed in the right perspective, our complaints against Meralco may be valid, but we cannot conclude that the power firm is badly managed. In fact, Meralco performed quite creditably in restoring power during those times when typhoons caused massive power outages.
Now imagine having government operating Meralco and dealing with metro-wide power outages. If they cannot even get their act together in handling the rice crisis, which affects mostly lower income groups, I shudder to think of having a government bungling the management of an electric utility where everyone, including and most particularly the economy, will suffer.
Under the present management, we do not have to bribe anyone in Meralco to get something done. Do you think this will still be possible if the government was running the show?
I doubt if other Meralco shareholders will even entertain a government takeover. They know government’s track record for corporate disasters very well and having government running Meralco will send its stocks irreversibly tumbling down.
Just last Wednesday, Meralco share price went down P2 while the stock market index went up by 11 points. Fear of a government management takeover caused that drop.
Just try running a page 1 headline announcing that government is already in possession of enough proxy votes to takeover Meralco and see how much lower Meralco shares will drop in the stock market.

[badsekktor]

parang ayaw nila galawin yun evat ah! yun evat pala sa electric bill eh redundant! tax on tax! ano ba yan!!!!

[CtrlAltDel]

"Under the present management, we do not have to bribe anyone in Meralco to get something done. Do you think this will still be possible if the government was running the show?"

Good point. This Meralco management has also shown they can take the heat and difficult setbacks and still make a fair return for their shareholders. I know as I used to own a few meralco shares that I sold last year for a decent return.

I dont know if Santiago, Garcia et al are also aware that their pronouncement to reduce meralco into smaller business entities has a similar option provided by the EPIRA? It is called the Retail Electricity Supplier (RES.) Supposedly, anybody can apply to be a RES subject to some requirement. Meralco will simply be the "wires" while the RES functions like what the meralco branch office does now. I was invited to a presentation of this sometime back. There can be many RES within the meralco franchise, each having their own billing format... while you as the customer can choose where you want your electricity to come from... IPP, NPC, power barge, etc... I think they call this Open Access. You no longer transact with meralco, you transact with your RES. If you are not satisfied with RES1, you can opt to transfer to RES2. This requires that electricity be pooled in the market exactly like what WESM is doing now.

But then we are taking a step back. I heard on the radio Miriam Santiago would like to scrap WESM.

[chua_riwap]

Sana naman magkaroon ng positive results yang Senate hearing na yan at di "just for show" or para i-divert lang ang attention ng public away from the ZTE-NBN & other scandals. Kung mapapababa ni GMA ang singil sa kuryente, additional "beauty pts." sa kanya yan, at maraming matutuwa sa kanya at baka tumaas pa ang approval rating nya before her exit, come 2010.

[shadow]

tingin ko this attacked on Meralco was planned since last year, sobra naman yatang coincidence na nakuha ni mikey arroyo yun energy committee tapos itong attack dog naman ng malacanang na si winston garcia eh bigla-bigla lalabas...personally tingin ko meron sinister reasons behind this tirade against Meralco...

[vito corleone]

of course, politically motivated (personal na rin) yang actions ng halacanang na yan. . .nungkang concerned sila sa hirap ng common pinoy for the burden caused by meralco's horrendous electrical charges. . .that is the least of their concerns, imo. . .

meralco may have some skeletons hidden in their closet with regards to this issue, but the bigger share of the blames goes to the government-run and corrupt napocor. . .for example, pag-import pa lang coal me overpricing na to satisfy the greed of the concerned officials. . .of course, reflected agad sa generation charge yun. . .and we do not know kung ano pang hocos focus ang nangyayari. . .

in this case, i also choose the lesser evil. . .bagsak ang meralco pag nahawakan ng mga taong gobyerno yan. . .bagsak ang service and gagawing milking cow lang yan. . .

hindi pa ba talaga matatanggal sa halacanang yang pandak na yan?. . .yung latest witness for teh zte deal, me prinoduce na picture of the first couple sa golf course somewhere in china just before attending a meeting with the zte official and she was apparently there incognito. . .

sigh, c'est la vie!

[ringostarr]

since 2002 pa gusto kunin ni GMA ang Meralco

[Cult Zero]

magkakaalaman pagkatapos ng stockholder's meeting sa 27th